Does DIY Social Media Marketing actually cost you money?

If you’re a business owner who earns $70,000 a year, your time on social media may be costing you more than $30,000 annually.

The article looks at the “Opportunity Costs” of do-it-yourself new media marketing, by which we mean the amount you’re paying yourself or an employee to run your social media campaign… as opposed to the same time spent doing the business of your business. Considering social media in and of itself is free, the potential costs may surprise you.

The following graph assumes these incomes, for the purposes of argument:

Business Owner A earns a net income of $40,000;
Business Owner B, $70,000;
Entrepreneur A, $100,000;
Entrepreneur B, $120,000.
(If they each work 50 hours per week, their hourly wages roughly come to $15, $27, $39, and $47 respectively.)

Click graph to view full-sized.

A single hour a day spent on social media (at those income levels) would cost your business between $4,000 and $12,000 per year.

Three hours a day at the same levels would cost between $12,000 and $36,000 annually.

And you thought social media was free.

The really unfortunate fact isn’t even the amount of money it can cost a business…

It’s that, if your social media marketing isn’t being done right, you’re spending an awful lot for a “free” service, without a worthwhile return on that investment. (And as we know, ROI is really what it’s all about.)

As the article points out:

“…it may be time to hire a social media professional to take care of your online presence for you. Only you can decide what your time is worth and how best to spend it for your company.”

Call or email today, to see how we can work within your established marketing budget to provide you with an effective program that saves you “Opportunity Costs”